Prados died June 7, after suffering from heart complications for several years. He was 76.

The youngest of four, Prados was raised in Loreauville, La., by various family members.

When he decided he needed to do something with his life, he moved to San Antonio and joined the Air Force in the early 1950s, serving four years as an airplane mechanic, family members said.

“He used to fly up in the planes with the pilots to test them after they were repaired,” said his daughter, Kathy Prados. “He would get a little nervous sometimes. He'd say, ‘If I'm going to be working on these planes, I had better make sure I fix them up right if I'm going to be flying in them.'”

Right before he was honorably discharged from the service, Prados met his future wife, Beatrice, at a USO dance. They married in August 1956.

Prados began working as a bus driver in 1957 for what was then the San Antonio Transit Authority. Family members said Prados considered getting to meet people the best part of his job, and he was called on at times to lead tours of the city in French for visitors.

“He spoke English, French and Spanish, so he was able to communicate with (people from) all walks of life in three different languages. His customers loved him,” his daughter said.

An avid health nut and weightlifter, Prados fashioned his own weightlifting equipment from cans and wooden poles, she said.

“He'd fill the cans with cement and fasten them to either end of a long pole,” his daughter said, though later in life he bought a set of iron weights.

“He carried on his weightlifting and workout regimen until the night before he passed away,” his daughter said.

The muscular man with “movie star good looks” had high aspirations for his children. When he was in high school, he lettered in track and football. His children developed a love for sports and fitness, too.

Prados lost the love of his life when his wife died in 1993 of a heart attack.

“She was everything to him, everything,” his daughter said.

Prados, a “wonderful, kind-hearted man,” was generous to a fault, loved ones said.

“I felt that he epitomized what God intended us to be, the way we're supposed to act and treat one another,” his daughter said.

dcanela@express-news.net

Correction: Alton John Prados, who died June 7, worked for 43 years as a bus driver for the San Antonio Transit Authority, which is now known as VIA Metropolitan Transit. Prados once made his own weightlifting equipment by fastening cement-filled cans to a pole, but later in life he bought a set of iron weights. His children played sports but never made it to the varsity level. A June 14 obituary on page B4 of the Express-News and on mySA.com contained inaccuracies about his life.